Although Wagner leader Yevgeni Prigozhin had reportedly been banished to Belarus after his brief and spectacularly unsuccessful rebellion, he seemingly enjoyed a surprising freedom of movement. He apparently traveled between Belarus and Africa and traveled frequently...
Biden’s Blunder: Three Costly Mistakes in Ukraine
US President Joe Biden’s policy in the war in Ukraine has been clear from the beginning: to put Ukraine in the best position “on the battlefield [to] be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table” while being careful “not fight the third world war in...
Ukraine Is More Than Wounded
Getting a count of Ukraine’s dead that isn’t the output of someone’s propaganda machine is difficult to do. But the number of dead is indisputably a horror. Measuring the maiming of Ukraine solely in deaths, though, is an injustice to the depth of the Ukrainian wound....
Prigozhin Is Gone, but Wagner Is Everywhere
At the end of June, 2023, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s coup attempt quickly began and quickly ended. Officials in the political West were quick to diagnose the weakness in Putin’s government and the vulnerability in Russia’s forces in Ukraine. Neither diagnosis...
The Global South Stands Up
As Ukraine’s counteroffensive and chances of winning the war begin to show signs of falling apart, and the realization that, eventually, Ukraine will end the war only through negotiations begins to dawn, Kiev has begun a campaign of conferences to court the neutral...
Ukraine, NATO, and the Polish Problem
Poland has been one of the most assertive proponents of Ukraine’s entry into NATO and of NATO’s escalating involvement in the war, from providing tanks to providing fighter jets. As Ukraine’s chances of rapid entry into NATO have faded and their chances of victory in...
Everyone Chose the Military Option
There was a whole menu of peaceful ways the war in Ukraine could have been prevented. NATO could have kept its promise and not expanded east to Russia’s borders and across its long advertized “brightest of all red lines,” as now CIA Director and then Ambassador to...
Talking to Russia: Five Things You Won’t Believe Are Being Said Behind Closed Doors
On July 6, it was revealed that secret back-channel talks have been held between former US officials and “prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin.” The US officials do not represent the White House but have briefed the White House. Though no current US...
America’s Cruel War Policy in Ukraine
In the early days, the war in Ukraine had not escalated into the dangerous NATO-Russia nightmare that it is today. The massive amounts of death and destruction was not yet imagined. Though "the news keeps repeating that Putin is targeting civilians,"...
Russia Decides Not To Renew Grain Deal: Some Context
Like the war that necessitated it, Russia’s decision not to renew the UN-Turkish brokered grain deal is bad for the world but not entirely unprovoked. The deal allowed Ukraine safe passage for its grain laden ships through the mined and blockaded Black Sea ports so it...


